Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Juozas Riauba compiled a list of Lithuanian's who had graduated from University (Adelaide, Flinders and SA Institute of Technology). Apparently he was a man who read the death notices every day to see if any Lithuanian's had passed away.

The list is from 1954 to 1974. In that period he recorded 81 Lithuanian names. The most obtained degree was a Bachelor of Arts (17 people) followed by Medicine (14 people), the next Science (12), then Engineers (10). One completed a Music degree at Adelaide University.

A few of the students undertook their degrees to to be able to practice their profession in Australia, mainly those with a medical background. Australia would not recognise degrees obtained oversees, or studies were interrupted because of the war.

Twenty five of the graduates were women and 26 moved away from Adelaide once graduated. Some probably returned. Riauba included a notes column where he recorded where they moved to.

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Vytas Neverauskas, GSM, Chief Commissioner for the Lithuanian Boy scouts and Gird Guides in Australia wrote this article in English in the Lithuanian newsletter Pėdsekis (The Pathfinders) No.12 in 1964.

Reasons for scouts in Australia can be summarised in three main groups.

The continuation of Lithuanian scouting traditions;

The safeguarding of our inheritance which we brought with us to Australia;Our full participation in the world wide brotherhood of scouting.

Lithuania scouting began in 1918. In 22 years of Lithuanian independence scouting developed in its own way for meetings and campfires, for expressing scouting ideals and for adapting them to its own way of life.

The communist occupation of our motherland has now lasted 24 years. How many of our brothers in Lithuanian will be able to remember the ideals of B.P to revive this wonderful movement when the time comes? Will it not be our duty to return to our motherland what we received from her initially?

It should also be remembered that most of the boys in our troops would not be in the scout movement at all, if it were not for the national flavour. Our parents support national troops because here, the children acquire some of the Lithuanian way of life, which they very often after a hard day’s work, are not able to give them.

We are proud of the language of our fathers, our own traditions such as Christmas Eve or Easter Sunday, we are proud of our folk dancers, we are proud of our heritage and are grateful to scouting for helping us keep it all up.

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

The National Archives of Australia has recently launched a new website, called Destination Australia. The website aims to draw on the stories of the people and their family members featured in the photographs showcased on the site to create an in-depth history of Australia’s post-war immigration.

The featured photographs come from a promotional series of photographs taken by the Department of Immigration which are now stored as the Immigration Photographic Archive collection (Series A12111) hosted within the National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch database.

The series contains more than 25,000 photographs and over 21,000 of those are featured on this site. With nearly six million migrants to Australia since 1945 it would be challenging to try to identify everyone who might appear in the photographs, and to collect and share their stories. But with the help of all Australia, we are going to try.

This is your opportunity to share your immigration stories related to the photographs.

The site is continuing until at least 2015 and the information shared will become part of the Archives’ RecordSearch system as a permanent part of Australia’s history.

You are able to tag people who you know, tag where they came from and came to, add descriptions and comments, and comment on others’ contributions, or scan photographs to explore what Australia’s post-war immigration boom was really about.

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

The book 'Australian Lithuanians' was launched in Adelaide on Sunday 3rd June, 2012. We were fortunate to have the author, Luda Popenhagen present, who spoke of the experience of writing such a book. The book was written for second and third generation people of Lithuanian decent. People who may know a little about their family background and experiences in Australia. By reading this book people may have a better understanding of their grandparents or great grandparents lives. It may answer such questions for them, as why was the Lithuanian language important to keep alive, as was culture and traditions.

Luda spent many years on this book, over two gathering information, interviewing people and trolling through archives. It certainly is no mean feat to write a book about a certain culture over such a large area. People wishing to see their families names and achievements may be disappointed as this work can't cover the communities history in such detail. The Lithuanian community in Australia has published two books, that deal with this in much greater detail, although that book is in Lithuanian. I have spend 2 1/2 years on this blog that just details with the community in Adelaide, and I know I have only touched the surface about South Australian Lithuanian's.

I know I will learn alot about the community I grew up in from reading this book. All copies that were sent to Adelaide were sold, but more have been requested from interstate. They sell for $25 from Lithuanian House, maybe your library even has a copy.